


Nowhere With You

by ToukoTai



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Age Swap, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 19:36:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8546476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToukoTai/pseuds/ToukoTai
Summary: Tim wasn't quite sure who he should be the most angry at: Damian for knowing and not telling, Bruce for the same, or Steph, for coming back from the dead and gallivanting around without even sending him a text.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Jason is currently Robin. Damian is Nightwing, Tim is Oracle and Steph is Red Hood.  
> Timeline:  
> Tim became Robin after Damian, then his dad found out and he quit. Steph became Robin, was fired and went on to create the Batgirl line on her own. Tim picked up Robin again. Steph is killed by the Black Mask and Tim is crippled by the Joker. Tim becomes Oracle, Jason becomes Robin, Cass becomes the second Batgirl. But has recently left it to Barbara and gone on to be the Black Bat.  
> Steph comes back as the Red hood.  
> Dick hasn't shown up yet.  
> And that's where we are.

“You know,” Tim breaks the silence first. “I missed you.” There’s a whisper of fabric in the room as someone shifted. It didn’t come from Tim. “I understand what you plan on doing, and I hope you understand that I don’t support or approve of it.” The soft tread of boots on his floor. Too light for Jason, too heavy for Damian, Dick is never this quiet and Bruce never this loud.(Cass doesn’t wear boots that sound like that, neither does Barbara.) “In fact I may even be forced to take measures against it.”

The footsteps stop directly behind his chair.

In the multitude of monitors set up in front of him, Tim can make out a figure wearing body armor, a leather jacket and most importantly, a bright red helmet.

The Red Hood in the clocktower, right behind him. Despite the absolute beatdown that had been given to Jason, Tim did not feel the least bit afraid. There wasn’t anything for him to fear from his intruder.

“I was wondering when you’d get around to me.” He said, resting his chin on his folded hands, elbows propped on the armrests of his chair. “I think I should be insulted that you’ve been keeping Bruce and Damian busy but haven’t made the time to come see me.” A gust of wind from a sigh on the back of his exposed neck. “You even saw Jason. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were scared of me.”

“I didn’t…” The voice is soft, trembling, unsure, the voice modulator turned off for this encounter. “I wasn’t sure what to say. ‘Hi Tim, you’re stuck in a chair for the rest of your life but I’m totally fine’?” Came out stronger, more like the girl Tim had known years before, now a woman vastly different.

“Hi Tim, I’m not dead.’ Would have been a good start.” The figure in the monitor flinches. There’s no heat in him though. All his anger has long since gone. He’s relieved, happy even, doesn’t mean he’s going to make things easier for her, but he’s glad she’s back. 

He  _ did _ miss her.

(And she missed him, the way her hands hover over the handles of his chair, not quite sure of touching, is more then proof of that.)

“Hi Tim,” Her voice steady, at a normal speaking volume. “I’m not dead.” A beat. “Anymore.”

 

It’s a work in progress.

Tim calls it the Red Hood Project.

She never strays far from the clocktower and everything is quiet on the streets.

Tim knows it’s driving Bruce up a wall, that the Red Hood could make such an explosive entrance and then without any warning seemingly vanish, with the smooth running of a criminal empire the only thing to show she was still in town.

After that first visit, the Red Hood keeps circling back.(her boots in his closet, a red helmet on guest dresser, lucky charms in the pantry he remembers  _ not _ buying.) Like a dog on a tether. Unable to leave him alone. (For that he’s grateful.)

 

“There’s no way I’m falling in line with the Big Bad Bat again.” The cool smooth metal of the helmet presses against the back of Tim’s head. The Red Hood had draped herself over the back of Tim’s wheelchair, her arms slung around his shoulders. Both watch each other in the reflection of Tim’s monitors. Not quite ready for a face to face just yet. The Red Hood’s helmet hasn’t even come off.

Yet.

Like Tim said, it’s a work in progress.

“Who said you had to go back to Bruce?” Tim asked, a teasing lilt to his voice.

“You sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’?” Tim grinned at the reflection of the helmet in his monitor. The arms tightened around his chest and throat, squeezed carefully. Not threateningly. A hug really. He patted the arm wrapped around his neck.

“There’s only so much I can do on my own. I’ve found myself needing help with some...errands.”

“Daddy Dearest and his fine little birds can’t lend a hand?” Tim grimaced, remembering some very heated words and how impersonal things had gotten.

“Things have been strained. A bit.”  _ A lot. _ “Between us.”

“Aw Timmy, you do care. You giant softie.” That’s as good as a yes. The Red Hood straightens up, stretching her arms above her head. Getting comfortable, like a cat. He hears a few pops and cracks as she steps back, swinging her arms up behind herself, almost bowing to him in the stretch.

“Sush. You’ll ruin my street cred.” Tim backs up and spins the chair around so he’s properly facing her, just as she tugs the helmet off. Her blonde hair falls around her shoulders. Stephanie Brown looks five years older then the last time Tim had seen her. A day before the Black Mask had murdered her. “So how ‘bout it?” She grins, teeth sharp and white.

“I’ll be your eyes and ears and fists of fury on the streets.” Tim grins back, Batgirl and Robin together again as Oracle and the Red Hood.

“I missed you, Steph.”

  
  


“Did you really have to introduce yourself to Jason like that?” Tim asked, once they were sitting at his kitchen table. Chinese takeout spread over the tabletop.  _ Let’s celebrate this new old partnership the right way, _ Steph had proclaimed before snagging his phone to dial the order in. Steph snorts in response, wrinkling her nose like the very mention of Jason turned her stomach.

“You mean beat his face in? Yes.” Tim sighed his disapproval. “I did him a  _ favor _ .” She stabbed her chopsticks in Tim’s direction. “I didn’t break any bones. He needed the wake up call. They  _ all _ needed a wake up call.”

“Is that what this has all been about? Giving Bruce a ‘wake up call’?” His voice slots in the quotation marks without him having to do them himself. Of course that’s what this is, but there’s a difference between knowing because you’re smart and hearing it from the source. Steph gives him a  _ look _ , which Tim returns. With an angry sigh, she relents.

“Yes,  _ Timothy _ . That is what this was all about. I  _ died _ , you are  _ crippled  _ and  _ nothing changed _ .” She gestured furiously with her hands. “Nothing  _ ever changes _ . He replaced me, he replaced  _ you! _ ” Patently untrue, but Tim will allow that it looks unchanged from the outside. And also if you’ve only had Ra’s and Taila to talk to. (Batgirl has never fallen under Bruce’s supervision, even now. Cass took the title for herself and passed it to Barbara on her own.)

“Then why agree to my terms?” He asked softly instead of saying any of that. Steph was used to him talking a good game, it would be longer, harder but all around  _ better _ to show her and let her come to that conclusion on her own.

Steph doesn’t answer for a few seconds, the fact that she has half a spring roll sticking out of her mouth could account for that though. She finishes chewing.

“I’d rather be with you, then against you.” Tim felt unexpectedly warm in the face and busied himself with a carton of rice. Ignoring Steph’s fond, knowing smile.

“You’re going to have to apologize at some point.” He says, once he’s gotten his emotions under control. Steph groans, but Tim remains firm. “I need you to work with him from time to time, so you should be on good terms.” She stuffs a load of noodles into her mouth, makes a big show out of chewing them. Petulant and stubborn to the last. “Steph,  _ Steph _ .” Tim does the jabbing with his chopsticks this time. “No more dead Robins.” Steph almost dies a second time of choking on the noodles. She coughs hard, pounds the tabletop with her fist until her airway and mouth are sufficiently clear for a rebuttal.

“Two points, boy blunder. First, I wasn’t Robin when I died,” Tim propped his chin up on the back of his hand, watching as Steph gestured in the air with her chopsticks. “And second, I wasn’t Robin because I was  _ fired _ . By the big man himself even.”

“Your uniform is in a memorial case in the cave. The room you kept leaving your clothes in is untouched and your locker still has all your work out stuff. I think it’s safe to say once a Robin, always a Robin.” The roll of her eyes is anything but encouraging. Unfortunately for Steph, Tim is nothing if not a stubborn asshole. It’s a classic unstoppable force, immovable object match up. Tim is very confident in his ability to wear Seph down though.

After all, he had all the time in the world now.

 

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Timothy.” Tim tilts his head back to smile up at Damian. Damian returns the smile with the flattest most unimpressed look Tim has ever seen. This includes all the times he’d overseen Tim’s training as Robin.

“I always know what I’m doing.” Damian sighs, put upon, exasperated, but the fond snort at the end is the tell Tim was waiting for.

“Debatable.” But Damian continues their meandering walk through the park in front of Wayne Enterprises. Damian was the only one that Tim allowed to push him around, Damian carried too much guilt about what happened for Tim to deny him this small measure of reconciliation. 

Their relationship at the start, had been, rocky to say the least, Damian viewing him as a literal replacement. Bitter and resentful, Tim hadn’t had the heart to fight back. In his last days as Robin, after Steph’s death, Damain had taken a more active and positive role. Started to see Tim as an equal, a brother, instead of a replacement. Started to fear that what had happened to Stephanie would happen to Tim. Determined to never see that again.

In a way it hadn’t.

But the Joker still happened.

It didn’t take the genius that Tim was to know Damian blamed himself for his current condition. Even though there really wasn’t any way he could have prevented it. (It also doesn’t take a genius to know it’s not just the Joker that Damian feels guilt for.)

Tim lets Damian push his wheelchair on their Tuesday and Thursday lunch walks. (Damian doesn’t treat him as fragile or breakable or  _ broken _ , so Tim doesn’t feel the need to reassert this.)

“I got this, D.” Tim says, “Trust me.” Damian ran a hand over Tim’s hair, too slow and formal for a hair ruffle. He had apparently decided that Tim had grown too old for those, and this was the new way for him to show affection in a simple quick manner.

“I do. If you find yourself in need of assistance…” He trailed off. Tim smiled down at his hands, his fingers interlacing in his lap.

“You’re number one on my speed dial, D. Promise.”

 

The startled shriek of terror that escapes Jason’s mouth when the Red Hood lands  _ on _ him. 

Is priceless. 

Simply priceless. Tim makes sure to create several backup’s of the footage, for prosperity, of course.

“Hey there lil’ bird.” Steph sings through the helmet, from her place crouched on Jason’s back.

“Oh my god, oh my god what the hell.” She patted his head with her gloved hand. For a given value of patted, really it was more like a violent hair ruffle. Possibly a hard knuckled noogie.

“Constant vigilance, Robin, attacks  _ can  _ come from above.” Steph’s Batman voice is spot on, Tim is impressed despite himself.

“O, what the hell!” Jason shriek snapped on the com and Tim couldn’t help bursting out in laughter even as he apologized. (Because Steph  _ had  _ violently introduced herself to Jason the first run around.)

“Sorry, sorry.” Tim saved another image of Steph sitting triumphant on Jason’s back. “I meant to warn you and then I just...forgot.”

“Forgot?  _ Forgot? _ ” Jason’s voice raised shrilly with each repetition. “You  _ never _ forget! What the fuck O, I thought we were fa-friends.”  _ Family _ . Tim winced, so maybe a heads up would have been a good idea, no one ever said he was perfect though.

“I promise Robin, I’d never set you up against ‘Hood.” Tim keeps his voice as serious as he can. “She can help you.”

“Help me? She almost  _ killed _ me!” Steph bounced off of Jason’s back. Tim decided it was probably best to leave this to Steph.

“Oh please, I didn’t even come close, what’s a few bruises between buddies anyway?” She held out her hand to Jason. “A truce, as agreed upon by O and I.” Jason scrambled into a crouch, eyeing Steph distrustfully. “No more dead Robins.” Whatever Jason expected her to say, that was not it. He sat down heavily.

“No more dead Robins?” Steph nodded once, her hand still extended. Tim could imagine Jason’s eyes flicking from the hand to the blank red helmet and back. Finally he seemed to reach a decision, his shoulders squaring, and slapped his hand into hers letting her yank him to his feet. “No more dead Robins.” He said with more conviction.

“Good good,” Stephanie patted his shoulder. “Now, don’t take this the wrong way,” She began and without warning or even finishing her sentence, body checked Jason off the building. “ _ Think fast! _ ”

Tim slowly lowered his face into his hands, wondering if he  _ should _ call Damian, just to put himself out of his misery. Hearing Jason cursing as he set off his grapple and Steph’s wild laughter as she followed his arc over the street to the next rooftop, Tim decided maybe this crazy idea of his would work after all. He listens to Steph’s taunting as she touches down on the next rooftop, with a smile playing at his lips.

“Run fast kiddo, if I catch you, I win!” 

“What happens if I win?” Jason called, breathless, with a hint of laughter in his voice.

“You won’t!” Steph replies cheerfully, two seconds before tackling Jason to the rooftop.

And Tim’s back to really hoping this isn’t a huge mistake.

_ He knows it’s not _ .

 

_You say you got nowhere that you're going to_  
 _Can I go nowhere with you?_

**Author's Note:**

> Title and lyrics taken from Nowhere with You by Joel Plaskett Emergency


End file.
